Piers Paul Read Alive Book Report

Experience is not always better
Alive: the story of the Andes survivors written by Piers Paul Read is a non-fiction novel that exposes the inescapable truth and utter braveness of Uruguayan rugby players. Out of the forty- five passengers, only sixteen individuals survived from the crash. Being stranded for ten weeks in the mountains, the survivors endured great hardships that they had to face daily. Through this an awful knowledge that most of the passengers did not survive left a big impact to others. Despite the traumatic situation, the crash survivors deals with the loss of food and extreme coldness of the weather. Therefore, the Uruguayan survivors had to face the torturous reality of their situation: to live. Within seventy- two days,

They had to cope with the struggles that the accident had brought them. Each of the survivors lived each moment in fear and suffering with the thought that many of the passengers died and have been injured in the plane crash. The accident left physically, mentally and emotionally severely damage: “Worse than the cold that night was the atmosphere of panic and hysteria in the cramped cabin of the Fairchild” (Read 32). The simultaneous loss of friends and family was devastating. Loosing friends and watch them die in front of their eyes has shaken each one’s belief of surviving. Including the avalanche that smothered them as they sleep where eight people were perished. With this, they had to grieve again, for the people who was once experiencing what they experienced. In the end, everyone suffered from the loss of the people who they also treated as a

There was no natural vegetation or animals on the snow-covered mountains that they could eat. So in order to live, the survivors were forced to make a grim choice: they can slowly starve to death or gain nourishment from the bodies of their deceased friends. Turning to cannibalism was not an easy choice for any of the survivors. They found it very difficult or nearly impossible to ingest human meat despite the circumstances. As an outcome, these individuals grew thinner and weaker: “He argued forcefully that they were not going to be rescued; that they would have to escape themselves, but that nothing could be done without food; and that the only food was human flesh” (78). Some of them argued that it was a sin to eat human flesh but some also argued that choosing not to eat is the same as suicide, which the catholic views as a sin. Others were only persuaded to eat for their families and children. It was a hard decision to make for all of them since the choices only leaves the same dreadful result. In the end, they still have to face the consequences of their